Family of man who died in Louisville's jail sues Metro Corrections

A new federal lawsuit accuses Louisville Metro Corrections leadership and staff of failing to properly monitor a man who died after a suicide attempt at the jail in early 2022.

Garry "JR" Wetherill, 41, was found Dec. 30, 2021, on the floor of his cell with a sheet connected to a bed frame around his neck, and he died Jan. 3, 2022, at University of Louisville Hospital.

Wetherill was one of 14 people to die in Metro Corrections custody from the start of 2021 through this past January, a situation advocates for incarcerated individuals and their families repeatedly described as a "crisis."

In comparison, seven people died in Louisville's jail from 2016 to 2020.

In the new lawsuit, Adrienna Adams-Wetherill, the late man's wife and administrator of his estate, names Metro Corrections Director Jerry Collins, former Director Dwayne Clark, Metro Government, a Metro Corrections officer and several sergeants in charge of training jail officers as defendants.

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The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Claims made in a lawsuit represent one side of a case.

Maj. Darrell Goodlett, a Metro Corrections spokesman, said the department is "not able to comment on pending litigation at this time."

Wetherill was booked Dec. 27, 2021, on various charges, including failure to register as a sex offender. He was placed in a single cell on detox protocol and "given special observation status," according to the lawsuit.

That meant a corrections officer was to observe him every 15 minutes as well as sign and mark the time on an observation sheet hanging outside the cell, according to the lawsuit.

Joshua Badgley, the corrections officer tasked with observing Wetherill that day, admitted to Professional Standards Unit investigators who reviewed Wetherill's death that he made several observations that fell outside the 15-minute window, with some checks not taking place until 18 minutes to 43 minutes later.

Badgley discovered Wetherill on the floor at 3:10 p.m. after last checking on him 24 minutes earlier, according to the lawsuit and PSU investigation.

Badgley also said he did not assign an "inmate watcher" to observe Wetherill in his cell as he should have when handling incarcerated people who may have a higher risk of self-harm or who are detoxing, per the lawsuit and PSU investigation.

The PSU case touched on a problem at the center of some of the other jail deaths — a shortage of Metro Corrections officers has led to inconsistent supervision of people in their cells and staff burnout.

The lawsuit cites September 2022 reporting from LEO Weekly on the Kentucky Department of Corrections finding Metro Corrections violated the state's jail standards in five of the deaths since November 2021, including by not properly supervising incarcerated individuals.

Clark, who was the Metro Corrections director from 2019 until his retirement in April 2022 amid pressure over the string of jail deaths, and "other high ranking LMDC staff did nothing to address the pattern of clear constitutional violations of the inmates housed at the jail," the new lawsuit says.

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It accuses the defendants of violating Wetherill's civil rights, showing "negligence" and causing his "wrongful death."

"The facts alleged in this lawsuit make it abundantly clear that the tragic death of Mr. Wetherill could have and should have been avoided," Noel Caldwell and Jay Oakley, the attorneys for Wetherill's wife, said in a statement. "Corrections officers failed to adhere to Mr. Wetherill's special observation protocol and their failure to observe him directly contributed and caused his death. The internal investigation conducted by the Louisville Department of Corrections Professional Standards Unit came to the same conclusion - if Mr. Wetherill had been properly observed then this tragedy would not have occurred."

The lawsuit, among other requests, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages and a jury trial.

Then-Mayor Greg Fischer picked Collins, who was a jail commander in Clark County, Indiana, and previously worked in Louisville's jail, to succeed Clark in leading Metro Corrections.

Fischer also had directed the jail's medical and mental health services provider, Wellpath, to re-evaluate its practices and hired a Florida-based company to review Wellpath’s clinical encounters with people held at the jail.

Additionally, Fischer hired a former Boise, Idaho, sheriff, Gary Raney, to examine jail suicides and the jail’s “policies, procedures, practices, training and equipment.” Last fall, Raney released the review that found myriad issues, including how staff safety practices are "often absent at the jail."

Collins has told Metro Council members that he and his staff have made improvements in recent months, and the director has said Louisville needs a new jail. The current building at South Liberty and Sixth streets, originally built to house Metropolitan Sewer District offices, was repurposed for the jail’s use in 2000.

The most recent jail death occurred Jan. 9 after officers found a 61-year-old man unconscious and in "medical distress," according to Metro Corrections.

An obituary for Wetherill said he "loved his family very much" and was "always great with little kids."

"JR was a carpenter and electrician - a handy man who could fix just about anything," the obituary said. "He will be sorely missed by everyone's life he had touched. Though JR's death was sudden, it wasn't in vain because the donation of his kidney's saved the lives of two others."

In addition to his wife, the obituary said Wetherill was survived by three stepchildren, six sisters, his mother, a "special Memaw" and "many nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins that he loved so dearly."

Jonathan Bullington contributed to this story. Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Garry Wetherill estate sues Louisville Metro Corrections over death